what is a paddle

Walt Blackadar, MD, Salmon Idaho, ran the Alsek River solo, several days through class VI rapids, from British Columbia into Alaska, in 1971 in a 13' x 23" fiberglass boat, died pinned under a fallen tree on the south fork of the Payette River, Idaho, May 1978, shaken by the death of his friend and consummate paddler Julie Wilson on the Bruneau River in 1974, southwest Idaho, first to write about